Vice President Joe Biden forcefully reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel during a speech Sunday before the general assembly of a major Jewish organization, telling the audience that "the ties between our two countries are literally unbreakable."

Biden spoke at the Jewish Federations of North America annual gathering in New Orleans, Louisiana, after meeting for about an hour with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to address the group Monday.

Nearly seven weeks after David Hartley's reported slaying on a U.S.-Mexico border lake, family and friends gathered in a Colorado church Sunday to eulogize him as a loving husband and an adventurous free spirit.

Speaker after speaker took to the stage at a church in Fort Collins, about 50 miles north of Denver, to recount stories of the 30-year-old oilworker who always "made the day a lot more fun," as a high-school friend recounted.

"He loved life and lived it to the fullest," his sister-in-law, Tia Young, told the crowd at Timberline Church in Fort Collins. "He was always looking for a new adventure to take with his wife. Now he's taking the greatest adventure of all."

Many of this week's major stories come from Asia, and not just because President Obama's tour of the continent has already spawned one viral video that will probably follow him for the rest of his life.

President Obama's Asian tour, the G-20 and APEC

After leaving India, the president is scheduled to stop in Indonesia before heading to South Korea for a G-20 meeting in Seoul Thursday and Friday. Expect heated rhetoric directed at the United States from emerging powers over their fluctuating currency values and widening trade imbalances.

Obama's next stop will be Japan for a meeting Friday to Sunday of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), an annual forum that deals with economic growth, trade and investment in the region.

Indonesia

Over in Indonesia, anti-Obama protests already have taken place in the nation's capitol before his planned visit. It's unclear, however, if recent volcanic activity in the beleaguered country will change the president's plans.

The country continues to take stock of the damage exacted by the unpredictable Mount Merapi, which continued to rumble and emit bursts of blisteringly hot gas and dust Sunday. At least 156 people have died since Merapi started erupting on October 26, and the death toll continues to rise. Relief agencies estimate about 200,000 people have been displaced.

All this comes a just week after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia's coast, triggering a tsunami that killed at least 449 people and left hundreds more injured. CNN.com will have the latest developments, thanks in large part to our stalwart team of iReporters in the region, who provide us with up-close-and-personal images and stories from the scene.

Counting was under way Sunday in Myanmar's first election in 20 years, a poll that critics say is aimed at creating a facade of democracy.

Polls closed Sunday. Riot police roamed streets in the city of Yangon, the former national capital that is also known as Rangoon.

Election workers for the Union for Solidarity and Development (USD) had campaigned in the countryside, where many rural residents didn't know how to vote. The party is supported by the governing junta of mostly ex-military members.

Pope Benedict XVI defended religion from critics Sunday as he dedicated the Sagrada Familia church, a still-unfinished emblem of the Spanish city of Barcelona.

"This is the great task before us: to show everyone that God is a God of peace not of violence, of freedom not of coercion, of harmony not of discord," he said.

And he pushed back against what he sees as increasing secularism in the world, saying, "I consider that the dedication of this church of the Sagrada Familia is an event of great importance, at a time in which man claims to be able to build his life without God, as if God had nothing to say to him."

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